Ethnic Diversity in the UK Marine and Coastal Sector - Accelerating Change

Ocean and Coastal Futures are challenging themselves to consider their evolving role in helping improve the lack of diversity in the marine and coastal sector.

This year’s Coastal Futures conference, An Inclusive Future for our Seas, saw seven bursaries awarded to young people currently underrepresented in the sector, two keynote speakers directly addressing equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and an EDI satellite event bringing together HR Professionals, EDI Leads and Strategic Leads from across the sectorforthe firsttime.

Ocean and Coastal Futures recognise there are a lot of reports addressing EDI issues across the environmental sector, but this is the first report of its kind to deeply explore the marine and coastal sector in isolation. The marine and coastal sector is not, as is often reported, a sub-set of the wider environmental sector. Instead, it incorporates a varied and complex collection of stakeholders, who are not solely in the conservation space.